Chocolate chip and vanilla marble cake

Did I say already, I really love doing the weekly bake challenge, it's nice to be told what to do for a change and not have to make ALL the decisions.  Thank you Weekly Bake-off.

Tray-bakes are not new to me I make them a lot, they are really handy for feeding lots of kids or kids over a few days.  I don't generally buy biscuits or cakes .... only in emergencies! or the 25p pack of reduced chocolate digestives I bought last week!  so the kids need something to put in their packed lunch and something for after school.  sometimes they even have some after diner.  Now you may raise your eyebrows at 3 pieces of cake a day, but if you are aware of the phenomenal amount of sugar in the average child's diet - 3 pieces of cake is a drop in the ocean -  I don't buy cereal so my kids don't start the day with cardboard covered in sugar.  Any way - I digress!

Back to tray-bakes, heres the recipe.  In my Mary berry baking bible it's page 251.

225g butter
225g caster sugar
275g self raising flour
2 level tsp baking powder
4 large eggs
2 tablespoons milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 level Tblsp cocoa powder
2 Tblsp  hot water
50g plain chocolate chips

Pre heat the oven to 180C, grease and line a 30x23cm baking tin.

Measure all the ingredients except the cocoa, hot water  and choco chips into a bowl and beat until combined.

Spoon half the mixture into the prepared tin, dotting the spoonfuls apart.

In a small bowl blend the cocoa powder  and hot water to a smooth paste and add to the remaining mixture along with the chocolate chips.  Spread in between the plain cake to fill the gaps.

Bake in a preheated oven until the cake has risen and is firm.  leave to cool in the tin.

To decorate, separately melt 50g of white and 50g dark chocolate (39%)  drizzle over the top once the cake is cool

and here it is nicely cut up on a plate

Now you may or may not be saying ...thats a nicely risen cake ... and I was thinking that myself :)  Many of Mary berry's cakes are made using the method described above ie,  everything in a bowl and whisk.  I was taught the long version, beat butter, sugar .... gradually add eggs to prevent curdling.  I have noticed that many of the cakes in the weekly challenge have been well risen ... not mine!  and so this time I did it the traditional way and my cake is much lighter and fluffy.  It's obviously the way that works for me.  Having said all that, the kids didn't notice and i'm sure no one else will.  

It was a very tasty cake!  

Royal icing

last week we made our fruit cake this week we made the royal icing for it. The teacher doesn't believe in electric whisks,  he reckons not enough air is incorporated and that the clash of metal (bowl to electric whisk) will give the icing a metalic flavour .... blah blah .... at home, i'll be doing it with a whisk! ..... an electric one

This is the recipe we used.

100g icing sugar,
3 egg whites
10ml glycerine
1tsp lemon juice

Beat the egg whites and sugar until smooth.  Add the glyerine and lemon juice and continue beating until thickened.   You'll know when it's thick enough when you pipe a line between two open fingers and the unsupported line doesn't break.

An hour's hand whisking is not a pleasant experience ....It was painful, one poor girl still hadn't got hers to thicken by the end of the lesson.

We stored the icing in a plastic container,  covering it with 2 layers of cling film and a lid.  Once you've excluded all the air and the icing will keep for a couple of weeks.

We kept some back for experimenting with colouring.  It's best to use the pastes as water based colours will water it down and it'll loose some of that hard earned stiffness.  Christmas Red didn't seem to work very well.  Some in the group had tried to colour larger amounts of icing and got hot pink! which just got hotter the more colour they put in....

My fruit cake has been resting at home becoming nice and moist in it's wrapping.  To add to the flavour and moistness we have generously brushed the outside with brandy.  Next week I'll need to take it to the lesson as we'll be covering it with marzipan.  Until then ..... happy baking.x